What Should Have Been?
by Eph
Summary: Lena has another chance to live up to what she is supposed to be.  Can Adrasta help?  What part will Ya'uta play if any?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Ok. . . so this was supposed to happen a long time ago, but now that it has started. . .what is there to complain about? Oh and just in case anyone is confused. . .this takes place after Requiem for a Demon, which occurs after Here We Go Again.

Adrasta was sitting on my couch looking at my TV remote like it was the strangest thing she had ever seen. I blinked a few times and she looked over at me.

"Hi Lena."

"Hi. . .what the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm just sitting here trying to figure out what this weird thing does."

"It's the remote for my TV. . .I meant how did you get here? I thought humans were the race most susceptible to time. . ."

"They are."

"They. . .right. . .so why weren't you left back there?"

"You know the answer to that."

"Yeah. . .then what are you?"

"Beleth had this theory that we're the same thing."

"Whatever the hell that is. That's awesome, really clears everything up for me. . ."

I collapsed into my recliner and sighed loudly.

"He mentioned in passing that the Oracle on Persi-I-3 might have an idea."

"He didn't mention that to me."

"He didn't want to repeat it. I figure he knew I would eventually be telling you anyway."

I scratched the back of my head, then leaned back to try and calm myself down. I looked over at her again.

"So you and Beleth were plotting against me."

"That's not it at all. He thought you might need some help figuring out how to use your powers."

"And I suppose you've got them all figured out."

"Of course."

"You didn't seem to be using any so called "powers" just a few days ago."

"I did a few times actually. You were just near death or not looking when I did use them."

I stared at her expecting something, what I'm not sure. She just stared back at me with her regular blankness.

"Why do you think the Yautja left so quickly?"

"Well, Gi'gush nearly took my head off, maybe he decided to leave it at that because I was done for."

"You don't remember their ship exploding?"

I thought back to that day. I do recall screaming, an explosion, then more screaming.

"Ok, so what really happened then?"

"While you were getting your head nearly severed off, I was attacking that tree remember? Those trees have really flammable sap. When I finally broke through the bark, I used my bending powers to coat the yautja in it. Then I ignited it."

"Right. . .the explosion happened how?"

"I threw a boulder through the engine."

"Yep. You've gone space crazy."

She looked at me again, still expressionless, and took a breath. I suppose when someone goes space crazy they don't realize it. Maybe I should have her committed to the place I was in before. It was pretty nice there. At least up until Ya'uta kidnapped me out of my happy delusion.

"If you want to believe that. . .well. . .I would have to tell you that you're very closed minded. If you knew how to use your powers correctly, you would know what I was talking about."

"What is bending anyway?"

"Well, you know what elements are, right?"

Ok, now she is just insulting my intelligence. I nodded and rubbed the bridge of my nose for a moment before she continued in her onslaught of my sanity.

"For example, you take the element of fire. . ."

I was amazed when a flame appeared in her hand and started to grow bigger.

"You can decide where it goes, how big it is and the temperature of it."

She began to twirl it around in her hand. I watched, completely astonished, as the flame grew, then turned from blue to orange to red. She smiled.

"That's bending. I would do it with water, but I don' really like it. Not the same effect as fire"

Great, she's destructive.

"You try."

She held the flame out towards my hand. I reached out, but as soon as it touched me, instead of burning me, it flickered out.

"Why did it go out?"

"You have to make sure to feed it."

"Feed it? What?"

"First you have to believe you can do it."

I smacked myself hard square between my eyes and scowled at her. She slouched back into the couch and sighed.

"This is going to be a lot harder than Beleth anticipated."

"I wouldn't be so quick to believe in Beleth's judgment of anything."

"Why?"

"He landed me with humans during my childhood. Humans raised me and I was very susceptible to their weaknesses."

"You just assimilated. Not problem there."

"Yeah."

"Except that you might never live up to your potential now."

"You have a hell of a way of making someone feel inadequate."

"I wasn't raised by humans."

"So when I found you. . .after that crash. Why were you there?"

"The more important thing is what are you going to do about Ya'uta?"

"What?"

She stood up and glided over to the window. Great, now that she doesn't have to pretend to be a human anymore, she's going to rub it in my face that she knows how to deal with what she is. She pulled the curtain to the side just enough for her to peer outside.

"He's out there right now, you know. If you come across him now, it's likely that things will unfold much like they did last time."

"Then. . .he is still alive right now. This is the past, the past before I even met him."

"You're insight is incredible."

I growled at her and stood up. She's in for it now. I walked up behind her and grabbed her by her head and smashed her face against the window a few times before I was thrown back through the wall. After the haze passed I looked through the wall that divided my living room and bathroom and saw that she was still looking out the window. I frowned and scrambled out of the rubble. I slowly crawled through the hole and stood by my couch.

"Ok, maybe you do know what you're talking about. The thing is. . . I don't know what to do or where to go."

She walked over and took my hand like there was no bad blood between us. I felt a pressure behind my eyes and then I thought I was going to vomit.


	2. Chapter 2

I was temporarily blinded, so I shoved my arms out in front of me instinctually. I hit something with my palms, but it didn't move, I did. My inability to see faded and I suddenly felt really silly. I had been trying to fend off a brick wall. Adrasta was leaning against it watching me with what I assumed to be amusement. It's so hard to tell when she never has any sort of expression on her face.

"What was that?"

"Folding."

"Of course. What is that?"

"It's . . .uh. . .teleporting?"

"Right. I know what that is."

"But it isn't at the same time. Teleportation is done with some sort of device or machine. Folding is done with the mind."

"Right, because whatever we are, can do that."

"Uh huh."

"Are we safe?"

"I wouldn't say that. Osiris is a dangerous planet."

"I meant safe from coming into contact with Ya'uta or any sort of like being."

"Yautja frequent this planet, but they aren't going to pay attention to us."

"Why is that? If they see that we can do anything out of the ordinary, they'll mark us."

"If they see us."

"I suppose we'll be out in the wilderness then?"

"Lena, you need to start thinking like you're somewhat of a godlike being. If you don't want to be seen, you wont be. If you don't want to be in a place, you don't have to be."

"We can be invisible?"

"Of course not. That's crazy."

I sighed in exasperation and thought about Ya'uta again. Did I frustrate him this much? Is this some sort of redemption? Cosmic revenge?

"We can obstruct optical intake. Meaning we can cause a creature not to see us whereas anything else would be able to. It causes a lot of confusion when changing from one to the next."

"I have a feeling that it's going to be years before I learn what all we can do."

"Yep."

"So can you bend anything?"

"Anything with an elemental base."

I decided it would be for the better if I didn't ask her what that meant at the time. The wall had suddenly disappeared and we were standing in the center of an alien city.

"Did I miss something?"

"You're the one that brought us here."

"What? I did that?"

"Yep. We should probably get walking, we're being stared at."

We walked down a stretch of road that was paved with cobblestones. Adrasta ducked into a building and I followed her. It appeared to be a bar and it was very crowded. There were all manner of beings. Dagons, Lynens, wraiths, and of course, Yautja.

"Are you sure this is a good place to be in?"

"It's really busy in here, plus you know that most of these beings are too full of themselves to pay any mind to us. Don't do that."

"Do what?"

I looked at my hands as Adrasta was and saw that they were glowing green.

"What is that about?"

"We can stun things by doing that. Don't do it."

I decided to listen to Adrasta after that. I was doing strange things and so far she had gotten me out of situations that I couldn't of gotten myself out of. We sat ourselves at a booth in the corner.

"So what is the plan?"

"I don't know yet. You're the one that wanted to come into town."

"I didn't want to, I didn't even realize I was doing it."

"Shh."

The barmaid walked over and looked down at us.

"Two Bitters please."

She nodded and stomped back across the room to the bar area. I had never seen anything like her. It was like someone played a horrible joke on a rhinoceros. I realized I was staring when Adrasta snapped her fingers in front of my face. I blinked a couple times and frowned.

"What the hell was that?"

"I'm not sure what they call themselves. They tend to get very upset when asked, or if anyone comments on any part of their anatomy. I think they want to be more humanoid and less alien, or maybe less humanoid and full. . .well. . .alien, I suppose."

"Right, I think I would rather be dead then be whatever that is."

"Uh huh."

The barmaid came back with our drinks. I chanced a sip and noticed that it didn't live up to its name. Whatever the concoction was, it sure wasn't bitter, more sweet and sort of sour.

"So when you say elemental based, do you mean it has to be like liquid, or rock or dirt, things like that?"

"Shh."

She looked across the room at a group of men that were heavily armed and looked a lot more humanoid than anything else in the bar, except for maybe the fact that they had huge spiraling horns growing out of their shoulders. Adrasta was staring at them sideways and drinking her Bitter with fury. I guessed we weren't going to be staying long, so I drank mine as fast as I could. She slammed her mug down on the table and tossed a couple metal coin like objects on the table.

"They shouldn't be here."

"What are you talking about?"

"Those mercenaries. . .they were here right before Beleth found me."

"What does that mean?"

"How the hell should I know?"

She grabbed my hand and I felt that nauseous feeling again and then I landed on my ass really hard. I looked up at Adrasta. I did realize why I had fallen on my ass. I wasn't ready for the lack of seat under my rear. I stood up and brushed the dirt off my ass.

"So what did you do, or should I say, do you do to piss them off?"

"I ended up blasting a hole in the bar the last time I was in there."

"Why?"

"I was having a really bad day."

"How bad was the explosion?"

"Glass, blood and body parts everywhere."

"Neato. Except obviously they survived?"

"Most of the people in the bar did, only the people closest to me were in bits. They came after me though, because they planned to get my name out there so people would start putting bounties on my head for killing their friends and loved ones. They did have a good plan, until I blew them up too."

"Good times. Where are we now?"

"I don't know."


	3. Chapter 3

I looked around, but realized that there was no reason for me to do that. I'm the least likely person to figure out our location. I was turning my head to look at Adrasta when there was a loud zapping noise. Adrasta tackled me from the side and we went tumbling down a hill. I wanted to hurt Adrasta at that moment. I was going for her throat, but it seemed that every time I would begin to get a grip my elbow would be jarred by the ground. As I was hovering midair a moment later I couldn't help but laugh. The ground was going to be coming up and I wasn't going to see words telling me that the game was over. My descent was halted when Adrasta wrapped her legs around my midsection and locked me in place. I looked up and saw that she was holding onto a root with one hand and had her fingers clenched to a protruding rock. I saw something above her and focused on that. There was a man with a large cannon like object strapped to his shoulder. He was grinning down at Adrasta. I finally managed to get my own grip on the cliff face and pulled myself into it. I heard a buzzing noise and I have to assume the cannon is getting ready to fire.

"Don't worry, I wont miss this time."

Oh good, I was worried about that. A few seconds later Adrasta punched the cliff, seemingly, as hard as she could. I thought this to be a silly thing to do until I saw the effect of it. The ledge the man was standing on crumbled under him and he fell. As he plummeted past Adrasta she kicked her feet out and latched onto the man.

"Adrasta!"  
There was too much dirt and dust in the air to see her splatter. The decision to climb down and attempt to gather up whatever pieces of her I could for a proper burial came to me with much difficulty. It took me a while to reach the base, and when I did I was very surprised to see a total lack of Adrasta pancake. Something was sparking four feet away from me. The dust settled and I saw the cannon in pieces as well as the man that had been wielding it. That's what he gets for fucking with Adrasta apparently. So where the hell is she?

"Adrasta. Are you alive?"

"Of course I'm alive."

"Oh good. Digging you a grave right now doesn't seem very appealing to me."

I turned around to see Adrasta sitting on a rock with her elbows on her knees. Seemed to me like she had been sitting there relaxing for a while. I can't blame her, it took me ages to get down here.

"What did you do to him?"

"I broke his gun, didn't do anything to him."

"Why did you break his gun? Wouldn't it have broken on impact?"

"I wasn't sure if it would break or explode until I got hold of it."

"What was the verdict?"

"It would have blown."

"Fun. Where do we go from here?"

Adrasta pointed straight ahead.

"That way is an encampment for bounty hunters. Behind us is a cave full of man eating walking plants, and if we follow the river we'll come to a village run by a man with half of a head."

"You know. . .none of that sounds very appealing to me."

"Does anything sound appealing to you?"

"Perhaps leaving this planet. That would be nice."

"Then take us somewhere."

After blinking for a couple moments I realized she was being serious. She isn't thinking straight though.

"I don't think I can do that just yet."

"With that attitude you'll never be able to do anything."

I grabbed her shoulder and thought really hard about somewhere else. I felt like I was going to gag and then I hit the ground really hard.

"Well that wasn't too bad. You'll need to work on folding us onto the ground."

A growl came out of me as I stood up. Adrasta was brushing grass off of her side.

"Where are we now?"

Adrasta looked around. She looked at me and sighed.

"You must really like this place."

"What do you mean?"

Earth. Of all the places I didn't want to be, I had brought us here. I'm such a retard. I surrendered and walked down the walkway to my front door.

"We might as well stay here until we formulate some sort of plan."

As I said that a net came out of nowhere and I was flung into Adrasta who I ended up pinning between myself and the front door.

"Don't struggle, the net will only get tighter."

I would have looked at her with slight panic, but my chin was resting firmly on her shoulder.

"Is this really a yautja net."

"You knew that."

"Fuck. Fuck-shit-fuck!"

"Here he comes."

I felt a prick in my neck and blacked out.

There was no light when I came around, but I could see. Everything was a strange shade of orange.

"Do you see in orange when it's totally dark?"

"I see in green. I always wondered what color another person like me would see in."

"Where are we?"

"We're on his ship."

"Who's?"

"Don't worry, it isn't Ya'uta."

"You would think that would be comforting, but it isn't. I know how to deal with Ya'uta. I don't know what to expect from this guy."

It was at that moment that I realized Adrasta was moving about, but I was fastened securely to a strange contraption.

"How did you get out of that?"

"I just pulled my hands out."

I pulled and my hands slid out with no problem. Adrasta rushed back over and slid herself into the contraption again.

"What are you doing?"

"He's coming back!"

For some strange reason I put my hands back. Adrasta must have noticed me frowning at her.

"I figure we can hitch a ride for a while."

"Until he slaughters us."

"Don't be stupid. You know Yautja don't just slaughter people. We'll have a fighting chance."

"You want to fight a Yautja? Why not just fold out of here right now?"

"I don't know. That gets boring after a while."

The door opened and the Yautja came staggering in. He had a large wound in his side and a glowing, bloody, handprint was left on the button that closed the door. We were in the dark once again and the Yautja was down within moments.

"Well. . .shit."


	4. Chapter 4

Adrasta sighed and knelt down to the fallen Yautja.

"You really are a dickhead. I loathe the fourth of Jundas."

"The fourth of Jundas? What the hell is that?"

"Jundas is a month. Today is the fourth."

"What does that mean?"

"It's a really sucky day."

She rolled him over and looked at him for a few minutes. I pulled my arms out of their restraints and knelt down on the other side.

"What are we going to do now?"

"We aren't going to do anything. He asked for it."

I knelt there frowning for a few minutes before opening my mouth to speak. Even when I did that nothing came out. Many thoughts were running rampant in my mind and it was hard to capture just one to project to Adrasta. She stood up and pushed the glowing green button. The door opened up and my eyes started to burn. It was a lot brighter outside than it was in the ship. Adrasta hopped off the ledge and disappeared into the sunlight. I felt like I should go after her, but at the same time felt I needed to do something for the yautja. If it were Ya'uta lying here dying in a pool of blood, would I save him? I suppose that would depend on where our relationship stood. If we were getting along, then yes, I would do everything in my limited power to save his life. If it was a bad day. . .well his near death state would probably be attributed to me. I growled for a couple minutes and decided that I would try to help.

I knelt there for a long time because I didn't know what the hell I was going to do about the wound in his side. I finally went with trying to use some unknown power to heal up the wound in his side. I placed my hands, palms down, on his wound and closed my eyes so I could concentrate better. I thought I felt my hands heat up slightly. I looked down and saw a strange grey smoke-like substance floating over his side. A moment later it was absorbed into his skin and he stopped bleeding. I wanted to show someone that I had just accomplished what I was intent on doing, but Adrasta was probably miles, if not light years, away by now on some distant planet.

The yautja began to stir and I decided to make myself scarce. I dove out the open door and rolled under a bush. I scraped my eyebrow and growled into the dirt. After disentangling myself from the foliage I took a good look around from the other side of a tree. I listened to the ship power up and then take off. At least he'll be fine. I'm not so sure about myself. I suddenly realized that Adrasta had totally abandoned me for no reason and that led to a very bad mood.

I wandered through the forest for a while talking to myself into a worse mood. Here I was alone again and not knowing where to go. It was the wraith planet all over again, except that hasn't happened yet, but it has because I have the marks on my back to prove it. I'm sure that Lord is alive and well again, still. . .

I walked to the edge of a cliff and stood there gazing around at the landscape. I was a few yards from the beginning of a large moor that stretched over a couple of hills and continued beyond the horizon. Well, I might as well start walking.

The cliff dropped down about 30 feet or so. I jumped over the edge and landed on my feet at the base a moment later. The first few miles went by fairly quickly. As I got further into nothing I had more time to think about how much it sucked to be alone again. When Ya'uta was around, I didn't feel lonely. I still don't know why I treated him the way I did. He was just trying to help me live up to my potential. I thought Adrasta was going to assist me, but I guess not.

I stopped walking and looked down at an ordinary patch of grass. I kicked it and then threw myself on the ground. This must be retribution for what I did to Ya'uta. I don't get it though. What about losing Fahu? Wasn't that good enough retribution? Maybe since that hasn't occurred yet it doesn't account for anything. And yet I still know about it, I remember that day distinctly as well as the day I found Ya'uta dead in that frozen tomb. I wonder if Adrasta can move through time as I can. She tagged along with me, so maybe she can.

I brought myself to my feet again and resumed my trek across nothingness.

Later on I found a hole in the ground that I curled up in and slept. When I woke it was raining and there was a foot of water around me. I crawled out of the hole and imagined myself somewhere else.

A moment later I was standing on top of a tree. This isn't good. I lost my balance and fell down at least 50 feet. I managed to twist myself around and I landed in a crouch. The bad part about this is I landed in the middle of a group of not so nice looking men. I could tell they were mercenaries. Something about them makes them so obvious. They seemed to know that I was not an ordinary girl so they attempted to restrain me. I kicked my left foot out behind me and nailed one of them in the groin, then jumped up into the air as two of them collided with each other below me. I landed on their backs and drove my hand through one of their backs. I felt my hand hit the ground and felt the sensation of my arm being sliced open with broken ribs. The rest of the men all pulled out guns.

Figures. I waited to get shot, but just before one of the men fired the first shot an arrow went through his head. As he went down another arrow imbedded itself in another one of the men's necks. I looked around as the men were all systematically taken out by arrows. They fell around me and I was left standing there dripping blood that was partially mine and partially not. I frowned and waited for an arrow to hit me, but it never happened. I wanted to find whoever had just assisted me, but I had a feeling they were long gone. Oh well.

The scenery shifted again and I was standing under a large tent. I was still covered in blood and the people around me seemed alarmed by this. I tried to make a run for it, but I was tackled by a large man with horns and the face of a smashed tennis ball. He held my arms tightly as he led me to an unknown destination.

It turned out to be some sort of prison. This is precisely where I want to be. Not. The door opened and a hulking scaly humanoid lumbered in. In his hand he held a whip and wore a mask over his face. He stared at me with glowing red eyes and a smirk on his misshapen face. This is going to be like the wraiths all over again, except I doubt that the whip he has will hurt me at all.

Three more humanoids joined us in the room and repositioned me so my back was more accessible. The snap of the whip cut through the air and I felt it hit my back. I didn't even feign pain this time. It isn't worth it.

I could feel his rage when, after being whipped for the 7th or 8th time, I didn't cry out. It wasn't comfortable, but a pathetic weapon such as this can't bring about agony. That is one thing about the wraiths, they really know how to cause pain. He grumbled something to the three smaller scaly beasts and they untied me.

In the end I was nailed, by my hands and feet, to a tree in the forest.


	5. Chapter 5

For the longest time I didn't see any reason to free myself from this mess I've gotten myself in. Part of me wanted to see why they had nailed me to this tree instead of trying the many other forms of torture that I know exist. The other part felt like giving up and relinquishing myself to whatever fate those ass holes hoped I would succumb to. I heard movement in the trees around me, but nothing came too close. I was expecting the smell of blood to attract a lot of predatory creatures, but it didn't seem to be attracting anything yet.

I looked up at my wrists to assess the damage and to see how difficult it would be to free myself. The metal spike was most likely imbedded into the tree at least 5 or 6 inches so it wouldn't slip out easily. There were about 2 and a half inches through my wrists and another 3 inches sticking out. I would say the spike was at least a foot long. The circumference gradually increased towards the end. This is going to be fun. I braced my back against the tree as much as I could and pushed outward with my arms. I really wish that my bones weren't so damn impervious to breaks. If the bones would just snap, this would be a lot easier.

After about 15 minutes went by I gave up on that. Another hour went by and blood was still drizzling down my arms and my back. I sighed and closed my eyes.

I blinked probably for a second too long and suddenly found myself standing at the end of a marble paved street. There was a river to my left and large columns bordering the road. I looked down at my wrists and they began to heal up. I touched my back and felt that it was healed and my robes seemed to be intact again as well.

"This is odd."

A tall grey, wrinkly faced, dreadlocked, alien looked over at me and hurried off when she realized I was talking to myself. Yeah, yeah. . .whatever. I went into a tavern and seated myself at the bar. The bartender lumbered over and looked at me. I didn't know what language to speak to him, which is a problem because I don't think I know any other languages if English, er. . .human rather, isn't acceptable. I read the blackboard behind him and just uttered something about a Bitter and he lumbered down to the other end of the bar. At least I don't have to speak in complete sentences. The bartender slid my drink towards me and I took a swig of it. I suddenly remembered that I didn't have any money. I suppose that I could just teleport out of here, but that's kind of rude.

I looked at a calendar that was hanging off the wall and saw that it was turned to a page marked 'Hendas' and all the days up until the 67th were marked off with a black slash. I frowned and looked around. Hendas. . .How the hell did it go from being the 4th of Jundas to being the 67th of Hendas? Obviously the months aren't incredibly short, so what is going on? Did I move forward an entire month in time? A man sat down next to me at the bar. Man is stretching it a little since he was about 6 feet tall and had squid like features. No apparent nose or mouth and his hands were more like fins. Maybe someone should dump him in the ocean for another million years so he can finish evolving. I think he missed out.

"It's a nice day isn't it?"

"Too bad it isn't Jundas anymore."

He laughed a watery laugh.

"It hasn't been Jundas for three ims."

I kept the look of shock off my face because it took me a while to realize what an 'im' was. That must be a 70 day period, like a month back on earth. I've traveled forward 207 days. . .this can't be good. Squiddy turned to the bartender and started talking to him. I didn't pay much attention until he started talking about a large rebel force and their leader.

"They say she's over a million degs old, but still looks like a young girl. She's been breaking into the palaces somehow."

"I've heard of that. They say there is no apparent break in, but there are signs of at least three kets of people being there at once."

"How do you move a small army around undetected? The soldiers have been going out of their minds trying to track down anyone who has seen or head of the whereabouts of her hideout. Nobody seems to know anymore than the soldiers."

"It's bad business. I wonder what's going to happen when the Unifaction is gone."

They stopped talking and looked at me. I didn't mind the way the bartender was looking at me. I know I must look completely out of my mind.

"Yes?"

"This girl. . .what is her name?"

"They just call her Shadowhunt. That's all that's really known about her. Except that she can control the elements."

I knocked my empty mug over and almost toppled over off the stool. I managed to catch myself.

"What's your damage young lady?"

"I have to get out of here."

"Hey, you can't leave until you pay the tab."

"Right."

I looked around the room until I saw what appeared to be a pile of money on a table. I took its appearance in in detail and pulled a similar looking wad out of my pocket a moment later.

"How much do I owe you?"

His glance flickered down at the red piece of leathery substance and then his eyes twitched back to mine.

"3 gurms."

I handed him the red one and he took it, handed me some change and I ran as fast as I could out of the bar.

I couldn't believe Adrasta had formed an army and was marauding around killing everyone in the Unifaction. I have no idea what the Unifaction is, but if Adrasta is bothering about killing all of them, there must be a good reason. I have other business however. I have to kick her ass for leaving me like that. It really doesn't matter if the soldiers can't find a trace of her. If we are indeed that same sort of being, then I should have some sort of connection with her. It's just a matter of figuring out this connection.


	6. Chapter 6

I got to the edge of town and closed my eyes. I focused as hard as I could on Adrasta. I opened my eyes and saw that I was surrounded by a group of men and they all had guns and knives pointed at me.

"Uh. . .sorry. . .I must have the wrong band of merry men. . ."

I tried to run, but 5 of them grabbed me and drug me backwards. I couldn't see where I was going and I didn't like that. I was tossed on the ground and the men walked away all except for one.

"She finally arrived."

"Oh good. I was getting tired of waiting."

I know that voice. I turned around and as usual my eyes fell upon the ridiculously bright green patch of hair on top of her head first. I stood up and walked towards her with malice in my mind and my hands balled up into fists. I shot my fist out, but she seemed to have been anticipating that and she grabbed my wrist, twirled me around, and hopped onto the ceiling out of range of my foot.

"There's no point in trying to fight me. Don't you know that by now?"

"I guess I forgot. You know, rage can do that."

"I guess I don't know."

"I suppose I could believe that you've never felt rage before, you being so emotionless."

"There is a good reason for that."

I waited a least 5 minutes for her to tell me why this was so, but she never did. She just crouched on the ceiling and stared at a spot on the floor to my left.

"Anyway. Get ready, we're going to have a nice battle tonight."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Unifaction has sent out 'Destroyers' and we're going to meet them head on to teach them a lesson."

"What exactly are Destroyers?"

Adrasta hopped down off the wall and took off her long coat that she had been wearing ever since I could remember. She didn't look all that muscular, but definitely had some tone. She dipped her fingers in a bowl of black paint and began to apply it to her arms, wrists, stomach and chest.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting ready like you should be doing."

"I kind of regret finding you know if that means going to battle with Destroyers."

"You don't even know what they are, so why do they worry you so much?"

"It must be the name."

"What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Not too long ago you were a bloodthirsty warrior. Now you're afraid of everything."

"I am not."

Adrasta nodded to one of the men that was standing by the doorway. He walked over and dipped his hands in the black paint and pressed his palms to Adrasta's shoulder blades. The paint began to run down her back and spread out in a weird pattern. I blinked a few times and frowned.

"I'm not afraid of everything. I'm still a good warrior. . .I just. . ."

In that moment of trying to justify my previous actions, I realized she was right. I had reverted completely back to my human attitude. It was almost as if everything with Ya'uta had never happened. Since I haven't met him yet, has it? Am I going to forget everything that happened to me in the past because it hasn't happened in the future? My brain twitched and I looked at Adrasta. She was finished with her war paint and was filling a quill with arrows.

"So what am I supposed to fight with?"

Adrasta pointed to a table. It was covered in a wide array of weapons. Everything from huge battle axes to fairly small daggers. I grabbed a sword that resembled a katana. I laughed for a moment and thought back to the night I had gone after Ya'uta without knowing what I was facing. What the hell happened to me to break my nerves?

"Well, I'm ready, I suppose."

"Good."

Adrasta put on a long cloak that drug on the ground and put the quill over her shoulder. She picked up a huge bow that looked like it had been made from the spine of something. She must have noticed me looking at it because she held it up.

"They sent a destroyer after me before, this is what happened to it."

"That's nice. What do those things look like anyway?"

"Well, it would be hard to describe them to you since you were sheltered."

"I was not sheltered."

"You lived on earth, that's an extremely sheltered upbringing. They don't have anything really dangerous there."

"How do you know?"

"Because I've been around real danger."

I thought about the huge gorilla monster that had brought out the first transformation in me back on Lau'thalus. Then the wraiths, that creepy snake centipede thing. . .

"So have I."

"You've never gone up against an army of destroyers."

"They can't be any worse than Lord."

"Lord was trying to seduce you, destroyers wont."

"Wraiths are dangerous."

"They're so-so."

"What about that monster that almost ate me after I got away from them?"

"It didn't have any sort of reasoning capabilities."

I was about to open my mouth when I realized how strange this situation was. I never told Adrasta about any of that, but she knows what I'm talking about. I frowned and stared hard at the side of her head. She sighed and looked at me.

"Yes, I can see your thoughts."

"How do you do that?"

"It's one of the simpler powers that we have. I'm amazed even you haven't gotten the hang of it."

"Even me? What's that supposed to mean?"

Adrasta walked out of the cavern we were in. I shook my head and stomped after her. I eventually caught up with her outside the cave. She was giving the troops a pep talk, or something similar. They seemed to have faith in her. With the powers that she has, they would be idiots not to. She's saved my life more than once. Her soldiers bowed to her and trotted off into the trees. Adrasta turned to me.

"Have you ever seen a kiande amedha?"

"Yeah."

"Destroyers are about that size, but they have four arms, three legs, and two long trunk like appendages used to bludgeon. It's like they have built in maces. They hurt, a lot."

I tried to envision what these things looked like, but it was hard to place a third leg.

"Their jaws open vertically as well as horizontally and they have about 5 rows of teeth. A bit superfluous, but they probably don't care. You really have to watch out for them when they rear up because that's when they swing their battering rams about. Our healing time isn't as fast as their reflexes, so if one of them crushes your skull, you're going to be in trouble."

"I can survive my skull being crushed?"

"Of course, hasn't it happened before?"

"No. . ."

"Oh. . .well. . .it hurts like hell."

Adrasta headed up a hill and I followed with the sword still in my hand. I pulled it out of the sheath and tucked that into my belt loop. We crested the hill and I looked out at the land. I really couldn't see much of it since almost every square inch for about 3 miles was covered with grey-white bodies.

"Oh fuck."

"There are a lot them, huh?"

"Yeah. And me and you are going to take them all on by ourselves?"

"Not entirely. My guys will give us some back up from the trees."

"Great."

"They do come in droves, but that enables you to get a good fighting mode going. If you had learned how to use your powers this would be a lot easier for you."

"I imagine it would."

Adrasta sat down in the grass and started running her fingers over her bow. I sat down next to her and frowned at her.

"Are we not going to attack?"

"There has to be negotiations first. A speaker from the Unifaction will start talking any moment now."

And low and behold I heard a voice being amplified.

"Adrasta, you are ordered to give yourself up or we will attack and kill everyone affiliated with you."

Adrasta actually let out a chuckle. It was the first hint of emotion she has ever shown.

"You have five minutes to decide. If we do not receive your answer by then we will attack anyway."

"He isn't going to be doing any fighting, what's all this 'we' shit?"

Adrasta shrugged and leaned back, reclining on her elbows.

"If you value your life, you will hand yourself over and we will be fair. You will get a proper trial with representation."

"All right. It's time."

Adrasta stood up and strung an arrow. She pulled back the string as far as it would go and aimed towards a funny shaped cloud.

"Where is that guy, I don't see him?"

"He's all the way at the back of this mess."

"Are you sure you can hit him?"

"This is a very good bow."

"I have a feeling it's not going to be doing all the work though."

"Nope."

Adrasta closed her eyes and turned the bow a little bit.

"Ahh, there you are."

She let the arrow fly and a minute later a strangled cry filled the air. Adrasta looked at me.

"Ready?"


	7. Chapter 7

I wasn't sure if I was ready or not, but I didn't have a choice. The destroyers let out ground shaking cries and charged. Adrasta dropped to a crouch and punched her hand into the ground. The trembling earth spewed up rocks and chunks of dirt which Adrasta immediately sent forward. They hurtled at lightning speed towards the charging destroyers taking chunks of flesh and chips of bone with them until losing momentum and coming to rest within the chests and heads of our enemies. The first wave was demolished and the second scrambled over the bodies of their own completely unaffected and uncaring abouit the slaughter that was occurring. They surged and shrieked like angry insects hell bent upon killing us.

Adrasta began firing arrows in rapid succession into the swarm. One after the other fell until she had no more arrows. I looked at her as I unsheathed my sword.

"You don't even need me here, do you?"

She shook her head and dropped her bow to the ground along with her empty quill.

"It isn't a matter of necessity though."

She ran to meet the destroyers. I watched her with a new sense of camaraderie and realized that I should be out there fighting with her. I ran blindly into the mindless throng and slashed left to right, up and down with the sword in my hand. As attacker after attacker fell to my blade I was renewed. The weapon was so comfortable in my hand and the glint of blood coated metal sparked a feeling of bloodlust in me. It pulsed through me and seemed to elevate my entire being. I remember myself now. I'm one of the best fighters in existence. I destroy anything that gets in my way! Everything falls to me!

I cut downward with my sword and sliced a destroyer completely in two. Yes! I am invincible! A true master of all! Nothing can stand in my way!

I turned around and a huge trunk like appendage collided with my ribs and knocked me backwards. As I flew into a cluster of destroyers I realized I was being a little too cocky. I haven't fought a battle like this in a while and I'm a little rusty. A mouth came down on my shoulder and I screamed. I kicked my foot out and it connected hard with the face of another destroyer that was trying to attend the buffet. I rammed my sword up through the destroyers neck and with a slight twist of my wrist I decapitated it. I threw the head into an oncoming destroyer and it batted it away.

A few seconds of quick slashing with the sword and the area around me was littered with bodies and pieces of destroyers piled up to my knees. I scrambled over the small mountain of bleeding, slippery, corpses. My clothes were so soaked in blood that they now had to weigh an additional three pounds.

I went on my search for Adrasta. It was hard to see through all the dirt and the haze of evaporating blood, but finally I spotted her. She was swinging around a huge sword that had to be at least twice her size if not larger. The way she was wielding it, it might as well weigh nothing. The thing that was confusing me was where the sword had come from. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed her carrying a huge sword into the battle field.

I saw a huge destroyer leap straight at Adrasta's back.

"No!"

She was in mid turn when huge spines shot out of her back. As they impaled the destroyer it exploded and rained intestines, blood, flesh and other organs down. I decided that it would be best to not stand there gaping in wonderment and that I should kill the destroyers that were now focused on me. I was about to attack when there was a huge boom and Adrasta was right next to me with her arm around my shoulder. She pulled me down to my knees and held up the hand she wasn't restraining me with. There was a massive explosion and the ground shook around us. All I could see was fire and smoke and flash charred bodies around us. There were three more loud booms and I braced myself, held my hand up and closed my eyes.

"What's happening?"

"Air strike."

"Isn't that kind of overkill?"

"They have to kill the destroyers they send to battle. They become too dangerous after smelling blood for the first time."

The explosions stopped and the ground became still once more. Adrasta and I chanced a look around. Nothing was moving except for the flickering flames feeding off of the bodies of our fallen enemies.

"That was crazy."

"At least you know how to put up a barrier now."

"What?"

"You put up a barrier."

"You did that."

Adrasta looked at me as she picked up her sword. It turned to black liquid and was sucked into her wrist. I really have to learn to use my powers. Everything I've seen her do so far is awesome. She began to walk through the battlefield in the direction I thought to be wrong.

"Where are you going?"

"A few of the remaining members of the Unifaction should be over that next ridge. Most likely headed home since they think they've gotten rid of me."

"So I really put up a barrier?"

"Yeah, if you had been looking you would have seen yours overlap mine."

"I couldn't see yours. All I saw was the affect it had on the bomb and the debris."

"It isn't visible if you aren't looking for it."

"That makes sense, I suppose."

"It isn't really a physical barrier. . .it's mostly your mind causing things to only come so close to you."

"You went through some sort of training. . .didn't you?"

Adrasta shrugged.

"If you can call it that. Come on, we don't want our prey to get away."

We traveled through the rubble of corpses at a trot.

"We go in high."

"What?"

"As soon as we get to the top of the hill, we're going to jump straight up into the air and hide in the sun."

"Uh. . .all right."

We got to the top of the hill and I followed her instructions. I jumped up as high as I could and quickly surveyed the ground. There were about 30 men standing around with guns. I have to assume they are guarding the 5 men in business suits that were sitting at a coffee table drinking tea. I pulled out my sword and as soon as I landed, I unleashed hell.


	8. Chapter 8

Their first reactions were amusing to me and caused my adrenaline to kick in again. I slashed my sword across the chest of the man closest to me and he let out a cry of fear and pain. I felt a sting in my side and looked down. Blood began to pool around the bullet hole and then spill down my side. Running my hand over it caused it to close up immediately and I looked at the man that had shot me. He was backing away slowly, trembling with fear, into a large boulder. I growled and leaped onto the boulder and as I jumped down at him, I rammed my sword through the top of his head. The blade pierced his skull and came out at an odd angle through his ribcage. With a twist of my wrist my sword was free and his body was lying on the ground.

I began to cough a moment later and I felt something metallic rise up my throat into my mouth. I spit it out into my hand and saw that it was the bullet. I looked at it for a moment and had an idea. I wrapped my hand around it, then threw it as hard as I could. It moved with amazing speed, entered, then exited the skull of a man that was trying to get away. Adrasta looked at me and I looked at her. Her eyes lit up and she nodded. I stuck my sword into the ground and raked up a few rocks and clumps of dirt and sent them zooming out in an arc. Everyone in my general vicinity was taken out by them.

Adrasta pulled her fist out of a man's skull and looked around. I surveyed the area and saw that everyone was finally dead. I was covered in dirt, blood, and ash and Adrasta was completely spotless. I figured she had repelled everything that would of sullied her skin and clothes. I need to figure out how to do that in the heat of battle. It might come in handy sometime.

We crested a hill and looked around. There were a few skiffs parked in a circle.

"Can you fly one of those?"

"Most likely."

"All right. Let's go."

We boarded one of the smaller skiffs and I powered it up. It wasn't much different than any of the skiffs I've ever flown. I still miss my yautja craft though. That was the best.

"Where are we off to now?"

"Surprise me."

Adrasta laid down on the medical cot and closed her eyes. Great. No direction, and still no idea where I am.

"Could you at least pick a direction?"

"Head towards Gyges. That should be a good place. . . to . . .practice. . ."

I heard her begin to snore softly. I've never been able to fall asleep that fast, I must say, I'm a bit envious of that. She rolled over to face the wall as I looked through the planetary atlas. I set the coordinates for Gyges and leaned back in the chair. I only planned to rest my eyes for a few moments, but I ended up falling into a deep sleep.

_Adrasta and I were walking down a long corridor surrounded by shadows. There was a light coming from somewhere, but I couldn't discern the source of it. _

'_Where are we going?' _

_Adrasta turned to me and I saw that her eyes were glowing brightly. _

'_We have to find him before they do.' _

_Her words sent a shiver down my spine and she quickened her pace. _

'_Find who?' _

_A moment went by and she still didn't answer me. I put my hand on her shoulder and forced her to look at me again. _

'_Who, Adrasta? What are you talking about?' _

_She sighed and ran her hand back through her hair._

'_We have to find Ya'uta. He's here somewhere and it's time that you met him.'_

'_What? No. I can't see him. Things will go wrong again.'_

'_Only if you make them. You've changed and the circumstances have also changed. You are both ready to meet each other now. It has to happen.'_

'_Or what?'_

'_I'm not entirely sure.'_

_There was a loud crash to our right and a klaxon began to blare. _

I fell out of my chair and scrambled to my feet. Adrasta was already at the controls trying to get the proximity siren to go off. She finally hit the right button and there was silence again. Something came up on the com screen and Adrasta sighed.

"Look, you really don't want to do this."

"But you have parts that I need."

Adrasta looked over at me.

"He's a harvester."

"But we just got this skiff. . ."

For some reason, in my hazy mind, that seemed like an important detail at the moment. I was just getting used to the controls and starting to appreciate the hyper drive feature. My eyes traveled around the cabin and then stopped back on Adrasta. Her face was as blank as ever, but something in her eyes was mocking me.

"What?"

"He doesn't want the skiff. He wants us."

"For what?"

"Organs. There's a high demand on his planet. A big war is going on and they keep having to replace things in their soldiers. They are running out of civilians to dissect."

My mind cleared up fairly quickly and I frowned.

"That's barbaric! What a freak. Let's get out of here."

"We can't."

"Why?"

"We're stuck."

"To what?"

"A magnet."

"Shit. If I had my old skiff I could reverse the polarity. . .Fuck."

"We're just going to have to go onboard and kill everything."

"Well, I'm getting pretty good at killing everything."

"I've noticed."

I heard a series of metallic clunks and felt the skiff hit something fairly hard and I was thrown across the cabin. I looked at Adrasta and wasn't surprised that she had been holding on to something already.

There was a high pitched screeching coming from outside the door.

What is that?"

"They're peeling the door off."

"That's a horrible noise."

"I know."

Adrasta pulled out her sword and got ready to demolish the first person she saw. I did the same.


End file.
